In life, every person has his or her own passion or love for something. For Eric Miller, head coach of the women’s soccer team, his passion is coaching.
Miller, who just recently moved back to New York, came to RPI this year after being offered the opportunity to coach the Red Hawks in an effort to rebuild the struggling program.
“What I love about coaching is that it is empowering to be able to motivate young people and to make them believe. I try and give them something positive that they can use for the rest of their lives … for me, it’s not about winning,” said Miller.
Miller has been playing soccer since he was four years old, and his love for the game has really paid off. He played Division I soccer at Oneonta State University and graduated with a degree in business and economics.
Miller would instead make his way into coaching. Remaining at his alma mater, he started out as an assistant for the women’s lacrosse team before switching over to coach the men’s soccer program he had once played for.
Now taking on a new task here at RPI, Miller has inherited a team he is trying to develop. However, after marrying his wife last August, Miller’s return to New York has not been strictly about coaching at RPI.
Back in September, with the season just beginning, his wife gave birth to the couple’s first child. As a new father, Miller had new responsibilities, and recognized the need to balance his personal life with his new job.
“I told the girls that I have two loves in my life, my family and soccer, and I try to manage both the same way. When I’m with my family, I’m with my family and that is my only concern. When it comes time for soccer, it’s time for soccer and that’s all that’s on my mind,” Miller said. He would add, “It has really been a humbling experience being a father.”
Miller’s main goal for this season was to teach his players how to play the game the right way. The two most important things were to have the girls defend and attack well as a team, and hopefully try to earn the fourth spot in the conference tournament.
Though his young team struggled early on, Miller sees the girls improving and moving towards his goal.
“I believe they can see why we are losing, mostly because we have been giving up early goals. When you look at it, at the start of the season we didn’t have much pressure, but when we do attack like we have been recently, we are hard to score against,” described Miller. He would go on to say, “We are definitely learning, and a big thing for the team, is that they are becoming less fearful. As a result, we are becoming stronger and tighter in our efforts.”
Using his experience as a player, Miller’s main coaching strategy is founded upon the basis of three main ideas. As he puts it, “What you hear you’ll forget, what you see you’ll remember, and when you do it, you’ll understand, so really what I try to do is give my players information, and then put them into the action so they can experience everything.”
Miller has seen a lot over the years as a coach. However, though it may be surprising to some, he sees no difference in the realms of men’s and women’s soccer.
“They are the same in my view … soccer is soccer. The one case you can make is that there is an emotional piece you have to understand and deal with. Everybody has their breaking point. With men, you can push harder because they will break down and stand right back up. With women, you have to be careful with how hard you push, you go as far as you need to, but then back off,” says the enthusiastic coach.
He does, however, encourage crying and emotion, believing that it is then that he can see that the players are giving their all and putting feeling into the sport they play.
Miller’s high intensity and attitude, sparked by a love for the game, has been a great influence on the young Red Hawks, as they began to share the same passion that their coach demonstrates.
“I told the girls this year that I wanted them to trust me. I sense some of it, but not the entire twenty five are there, it’s been up and down. When you win it is easier, but even if we are lacking total trust, our attitude has remained positive throughout the course of the year,” said Miller.
With five games remaining in the season, Miller would love to take two or three out of the five, believing that for the team, it would ultimately end up being a winning season.
“There has been massive improvement regardless of score, wins, and losses. Success is measured by how you improve, and we are just not seeing our improvement in the win column,” said Miller of his young team.
He believes that, with a good recruiting class, in a year or two things will really begin to turn around. And while recruiting players to RPI is never easy, Miller is confident that in the end his team will haul in the right pieces to fill their needs.
“I think we have a pretty solid midfield, our biggest area to work on right now is scoring goals,” said Miller.
Miller is anxiously awaiting the transition of some of his talented players into standouts. He believes that senior Rebecca Primm, when disciplined, is the best player on the field, and is so close to understanding what she needs to do in order to be successful. He also sees great potential in junior Katie Frank, hoping that she will become more of a vocal leader, stating that once she does this, she will elevate her status to one of the elite on the team.
With the Red Hawks being very young and still learning the game, leaders will undoubtedly be important in the progress of the team for years to come. While leaders on the field are always important, no player is above another or the team. The real leader that this Red Hawk team believes in and looks to is their new coach, and there isn’t another man more qualified. A coach with experience, passion, and enthusiasm; someone that the players can look to as a role model; this is exactly what the girls have in Miller. It is only a matter of time before this young Red Hawks team tastes success.
